2010 World Cup

The World Cup 2010 will be held in South Africa this time around. It will be played at ten stadiums located in nine different regions of the country for a full month from June 11 to July 11. On the part of South Africa there is a massive effort to make the event a grand success. The country is doing its best to rally the whole continent behind the effort. The International Marketing Company of South (IMC) is spearheading the campaign. Paul Bannister, the Chief Executive of IMC is brimming with confidence that their efforts will bear fruits. A series of television advertisements have already started to stir up the interest of not only the South Africans alone, but also that of Africa as a whole. The Vuvuzela trumpet of South Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro of Kenya and the tribals of Giza, where the historic Egyptian Pyramids rest are among the features employed for these advertisements. They stress the point that the show belongs to Africa as a whole, not South Africa’s alone.

Even though the first international football match was played in 1872 between England and Scotland, the first FIFA tournament was organized by the then FIFA president, Jules Rimet in 1930 in Uruguay. Only 13 teams participated. The low number was due to the reluctance of many European teams to travel such a long distance. The FIFA was formed only in 1904 and by that time football was included in Olympics. But Olympic football was always for the amateur players and the FIFA encouraged professional teams. The second World Cup tournament was held in 1934 in Italy with 16 teams participating and that format continued until 1982. In 1982 the number was doubled to 32 and that remains until today.

The present day 32 national teams are selected from over 200 teams all over the world. The selection process takes two years to complete before the final FIFA tournament. One interesting story behind the tournament is that South Americans always protested in the beginning the holding of the tournament outside their territory. Some of them have even boycotted the tournaments held in Europe.

South Africa goes into every detail to make the event flawless. One major factor they take very seriously is the hospitality side. All arrangements are in full swing already. The exclusive right is given to Match Hospitality. Their packages include ticket and on-site hospitality on match-days. They arrange preferential parking, entertainment during the match and even a gift to the guest. The facility called the Big Five Series enables you to watch all the matches in the five big stadiums where all the important matches are played. This facility is offered only in private suites. The Big Five Series does not include accommodation and travel.